Rajkumar Thukral, a controversial BJP MLA from Uttarakhand’s Rudrapur constituency, was caught on camera on Friday threatening a woman sub-inspector of police

Thukral had then refuted the allegations, calling them “a conspiracy by the opposition to malign his image.”(ANI Screengrab)

BJP’s Rudrapur legislator Rajkumar Thukral is not new to controversy, as two more videos of him thrashing a woman and abusing toll plaza staff in US Nagar had gone viral earlier this year.

In March, a video purportedly showed Thukral abusing and roughing up a woman who had come to him in Dehradun to solve a family-related matter. In May, another video showed that the MLA was allegedly misbehaving and abusing staff of a toll plaza in US Nagar.

Thukral had then refuted the allegations, calling them “a conspiracy by the opposition to malign his image.”

After the video of the Friday’s incident went viral, the Congress accused the BJP of “deliberately keeping mum on the whole issue.”

“What Thukral could be seen doing in the video was condemnable. He was charging towards the female sub-inspector, as if he was going to hit her for doing her duty. Despite all this, the BJP government is silent on this serious issue,” Congress state president Pritam Singh said over the phone.

“Thukral’s actions reek of arrogance for being in power. Instead of respecting the law, he is threatening those who maintain it. What message his actions would send to the society?”

Singh accused the ruling BJP of maintaining double standards on such issues.

“A few days ago, the entire BJP of the state was up in arms against a folk singer for using the word ‘Jhanpu’, which means sleepy, in his song that talked about the problems in the state. They even lodged a police complaint against him. But now, they are uttering not a single word on Thukral.”

Reacting to the Congress’s accusations, BJP state general secretary Naresh Bansal said, “They have no right to tell us what to do. They have a black history on such incidents which was evident in 2013 when one of their legislators fired during a party and injured two persons. Then Congress government didn’t do anything against him.